God of War

Voices of: Linda Hunt, Terrence 'T.C.' Carson, Carole Ruggier, Steve Blum, Susanne Blakeslee, Fred Tatasciore, Claudia Black, Nolan North
Developer: Santa Monica Studio
Directed by: David Jaffe, Greg Tiernan
Rating: M
Genre: Hack and Slash
System: Playstation 2
2005

Times Completed:
Tim: 1

Summary: The fierce warrior Kratos pledges his life to the war god Ares in exchange for his life and those of his men. Years of servitude have shattered Kratos, who begins his final quest when Athena asks him to assassinate Ares.

Review:
Tim: God of War is a video game that's a bit difficult to classify. It's brilliant, frustrating, flawed, entertaining. It's the start of a terrific video game franchise, introduces an all-time video game character in Kratos, but also befuddles the players at certain points. It's the kind of game I loved playing, but it feels like it takes a lot out of you. It's the kind of game that when I finished, I knew I needed a long break from the franchise.

This action adventure game starts out in amazing cinematic sense- Kratos fights a Hydra in one of the most thrilling, engaging battle scenes I've ever played in a video game. It was an impressive choice to have an epic battle start the game when the player is still trying to figure out the controls. I immediately loved the immersion into this world and into the sandals of Kratos. From there, Kratos' winding journey leads him to Pandora's Box, then he must summon and summit Cronos, descend into the Underworld, and then finally, to the doorstep of Ares himself. The game does a fantastic job of borrowing from Greek mythology but weaving these pieces together into something that feels original. The game always pays tribute to the myths and legends of antiquity, but plays fast and loose with the facts to tell the story of Kratos. I loved how the game approached the story and the characters.

Kratos immediately emerges as one of the coolest video game characters I've ever played. His tragic story is dark and heartbreaking. This is a video game character with serious baggage and the game is his redemption (or not) story. I loved the depth poured into this character. That is one of the chief differentiators of this game- Kratos feels like a fully fleshed out character in a way that seldom happens in video games. You get to know him, his tragic backstory, and you appreciate the brazen courage he has to challenge the gods themselves. It's a truly wonderful story of an amazing individual. You never forget the story or character as you're mashing buttons and taking on all sorts of bosses, puzzles, and challenges.

The visuals are impressive. The game is definitely rated M for a reason. It's violent, bloody, gory. The red blood spray at times is overwhelming. This is the kind of game I didn't let my kids be in the room for, when I played. I did love the visuals, how this world was carefully constructed. It definitely adds a great deal to the playing experience.

I do need to clarify that as much as I loved God of War, it frustrated the hell out of me at times. There's so many points throughout the game that feel unnecessarily brutal for the player. I am not going to talk about all of them, because I simply do not want to relive some of the more frustrating sequences. Let's just say that in specific places, I died over and over and over again. The worst moment for me was probably the Minotaur. I was probably doing something wrong because the trial and error of that boss nearly drove me mad. I died repeatedly, each time getting maybe a tad bit better. It was incredibly aggravating. I did feel a great sense of accomplishment when I completed it, but I wasted over an hour trying to defeat him. The climbing sequence was brutal as well- the spike pillars were just designed to frustrate the heck out of you. There were other moments when it felt like the controls and camera angles limited you and the game was just unnecessarily brutal. I get that was probably intentional, but it absolutely frustrated me to replay sequences over and over to try and finalize them. And, I played this game on the Normal difficulty! I also need to acknowledge the challenge of the final boss, Ares. I was a little more forgiving here because it was the climactic boss, but my goodness- it was hard. I died so many times, trying to refine my technique. This is definitely not a game that caters to the audience- it throws those challenges right out there and forces you to learn to be better. I did finally defeat Ares and I felt such a tremendous sense of accomplishment. But yikes, this game was challenging.

It took me just over 10 hours to complete this game, but I'm not sure if my many deaths restarted the timer. I think it had to, because the game felt much longer to me. I did upgrade all weapons to the Max level, except for Medusa's Stare (which I got to Level 2). It's not a very long game (thankfully), but it provides a cinematic playing experience that felt quite unique. I didn't even consider doing any extras- I was so happy to have defeated Ares, I was absolutely done with the game after that.

In the end, I have so much praise for God of War. I play a lot of video games and I've always been drawn more to the story and character-centric games. That is absolutely the focus of this. Santa Monica Studios created an iconic, unforgettably cool character in Kratos. The game throws so many seemingly impossible challenges at this individual and he (and we) overcome them all. I did appreciate the challenge of the game, but there were multiple ridiculous moments that didn't need to be so unnecessarily brutal. Still, that does align with the brutality and violence of the story. This is a classic game that kick-started an incredible franchise. It took me almost a year and a half to feel like I was ready to continue Kratos' story. This is not a game you shake off easily.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: N/A



If You Enjoyed This Game, We Recommend: Shadow of the Colossus, God of War II, Bayonetta, Borderlands